^----------------------------------^

Marinette sat alone in her room. This was how she spent a lot of her time – sprawled across her bed, hastily scrawling in her sketchbook, which was nearly complete. She dreaded the day it would be finished, as this was her only one, and shed have to wait until her next birthday before she got another. Her mother didn't exactly approve of her artistic fascinations, so any moment she could get, she was writing songs or getting in some drawing practice. A clear, sharp series of knocks echo through her room, which could only have come from the robot herself; Tomoe Tsurugi. Mari loved her dearly, but it amazed everyone around them that such a social, creative, emotive child could have come from such a harsh, unyielding woman.

Mari gave her mother the go ahead to enter, quickly stuffing her pencils and pad under the bedside table next to her. Simultaneously, she whipped out an old book she kept under her bed for emergency situations such as this. Her mum quirked an eyebrow at the tome, at how dilapidated and worn out it was. Mari was given that book years ago, by her childhood friend. She refused to toss it, keeping it only to scour it over and over again.

"That old thing? When are you going to put that darned book down?"

Don't be confused by the choice of words there; that sentence was spoken with utter disdain for the wretched text. No bemusement whatsoever.

"C'mon mum, you know how much I love this thing. The only memory of the only friend you've ever let me have around."

"Nobody else has been worthy of you yet. Now, get to bed. School starts tomorrow, and I won't have you straggling behind."

^----------------------------------^

Kagami was wringing her hands out, trying to scrub the watery goop off her hands like it'd give her a disease if she left it any longer. She hated baking, but there wasn't much else she could do with her time. The one saving grace of this dreaded activity was the finished product. She would never admit it, but Kagami had one hell of a sweet tooth.

She sighed with a volume no amateur could achieve, dramatically flinging her hands out to rid them of any leftover water. Sabine would swear she sighed louder and gestured harder every day. She always wondered how her daughter turned out so reserved, so alone. She never talked about her day, or invited friends over. Not even when she had school projects. 'Do we embarrass her? Is she being bullied? Does she really just hate people?' These thoughts would never stop circulating through the worried parents' minds.

Kagami was now studying in her room. Or rather, eyeing the pages of her geography textbook, and absorbing absolutely nothing from it. She was, instead, thinking about a specific comment she got in art class at the end of last year.

^---- Flashback ----^

Kagami was finishing off a watercolour painting she did for a landscape task. She hadn't been trying all too hard, since she wasn't particularly interested in art. A shadow passed behind her.

"Whoah, K! That looks awesome! What even is this place?"

She sat in silence for a bit, before steeling up the nerve to answer.

"It's... It's a garden. I used to live near it before I moved to Paris."

"Well, it looks really cool! You should definitely think about becoming an artist!"

^---- End of Flashback ----^

She'd not put any thought into getting better at art before that day, as an academic, analytical sort of person. But come time to confirm her electives for this year, she was seriously considering dropping PE to do art instead. Y'see, Kagami had done plenty of watercolour paintings in her lifetime. Nature's shapes and forms came easy to her. But if you gave her a pencil and asked her to draw something simple – say, a cat – she'd completely miss the mark.

'Maybe someone at this new school can tutor me...'

^----------------------------------^

Hey hey everyone, I'm back! For now, don't expect anything new from my oneshots book. I've kiiiiiinda lost interest in writing it. But, instead y'all are getting an actual story! That's gotta be at least twice as exciting, right?

In case you couldn't tell, this story will (eventually) be extremely gay. Don't expect me to tone it down for the sake of the cishets

That's about it for now! If you have any questions, leave a comment. Ciao! ~